Woman gets year for setting boyfriend’s mother’s Stamford house on fire

A Norwalk woman who became so angry when her cousin married her ex-boyfirend and broke into his apartment and stole his cousin’s wedding dress and torched his mother’s home in Stamford was sentenced to a year in jail Thursday.

Felicia Langley, 34, of 53 Glasser St., was sentenced by Judge Richard Comerford at the Stamford courthouse less than two months after she pleaded guilty to charges of third-degree burglary and third-degree arson.

At the sentencing her public defender Barry Butler said Langley was the youngest of five children and had no criminal record. He said Langley had the support of her family and her mother had come to each of her court hearings before dying a few months ago.

He said at the time Langley was employed at a major department store in Stamford and had no mental health or substance abuse issues.

He said that Langley’s cousin “hoped and prayed” that Langley had found the peace that she needs and she forgave her for the burglary.

Langley, who has been held in lieu of a $75,000 court appearance bond at the York Correctional Institution for women in Niantic since her arrest last November, was given a four year suspended sentence that she could be made to serve if she violates probation for three years after her release.

Other charges against Langley including harassment, threatening and disorderly conduct, were dropped by Senior Assistant State’s attorney Richard Colangelo. Under advice from Butler, Langley remained silent when asked by Comerford if she had anything to say.

The Aug. 3, 2012 fire caused more than $100,000 damage to an unoccupied residence at 303 Greenwich Ave. The fire was set only a day after Felicia Langley broke into the former boyfriend’s Norwalk home and took the wedding dress. Langley was originally charged with first-degree arson, but had that charged reduced in the plea agreement.

Langley immediately became a suspect in the fire when her old boyfriend told police at the scene of the fire that she had threatened him that morning, and they called Langley in for a talk.

She told detectives that after finding out about her old boyfriend’s marriage she could not eat and had tried for days to contact the two so they could tell her the truth about being a married couple.

When they wouldn’t return her calls and Langley found out the new wife had changed her telephone number, Langley said she became even angrier and admitted to threatening to beat up the new wife and find someone to beat up the old boyfriend, the affidavit said.

On the day of the fire, she admitted to taking a half-hour break from her job as a merchandise intake worker for a large city department store, and said she drove around town during the break, but denied driving to the house.

However, after she was told by investigators that her beat up 1993 Mercury Marquis would probably show up easily on surveillance tapes that had been recorded by nearby businesses on Greenwich Avenue, Langley then admitted to driving by the house and then going straight back to work, the affidavit said.

When she was told there was a witness who spotted a woman fitting her description standing on the front porch of the home, Langley changed her story again and admitted that she stopped at the house to see if her old boyfriend was staying there. She said she knocked on the door, and figuring he was there but not answering, she decided to go straight back to work and clocked back in at 12:26 p.m.

When she was asked how the Greenwich Avenue fire could have been reported at 12:26 p.m. — only five to 10 minutes after she was at the house — Langley started to cry and denied starting the fire.

“Langley then put her arms on the table, hunched over and put her face straight down onto her arms, all the while still crying, and said, I don’t want to go to jail… I don’t want to lose my son, ‘” the affidavit said.

But when investigators asked if there was any chance she could have accidentally started the fire, the story changed again and Langley admitted to walking around to the rear of the home and knocked on the door to the porch.

Finding the porch door open she said she went inside. She said she dropped a cigarette on the floor and stepped on it, the affidavit said.

“I thought it was out but I guess it wasn’t. I guess I didn’t stamp it out enough, “ and insisted she did not mean to start a fire.

But investigators said they believe Langley used something else to start the fire.